Stylianos "Stelios" Kazantzidis (Greek: Στέλιος Καζαντζίδης) (29 August 1931 – 14 September 2001) was a prominent Greek singer. A leading singer of Greek popular music, or Laïkó, he collaborated with many of Greece's foremost composers.

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Kazantzidis was born in Nea Ionia, in Athens, Greece. He was the first of two brothers born to Haralambos Kazantzidis (of Pontian roots from Ordu) and Gesthimani Kazantzidis, who came from the town of Alanya (known as Alaiya) in Southern Turkey and migrated to Greece as a result of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). He was orphaned at the age of 13 when his father, a member of the Greek Resistance, was tortured to death by the rightists.[1] This forced Kazantzidis into employment, working as a baggage-carrier at Omonia Square and then for an interstate bus company, as a seller of roasted chestnuts at open markets, and as a labourer at the Nea Ionia textile mills.

His life changed when the owner of a factory, which was located in the Perissos working district, gave him a guitar. He spent long hours playing music. He made his first public appearance at a Kifissia night club in the early 1950s and soon after, in July 1952, made his first studio recording at Columbia studios with a song entitled "I'm going for a swim" (Για μπάνιο πάω), written by Apostolos Kaldaras. It did not do well but he tried again, recording Giannis Papaioannou's "The suitcases" (Οι βαλίτσες) soon after. The song became the first of many hits and with his newfound popularity he began to make appearances in some of the biggest clubs of the time, like "Theios", "Mpertzeletos" and "Rosignol". With his career in full swing, Kazantzidis began to collaborate with some of the biggest names in Greek music, among them Manolis Chiotis, Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis, and Stavros Xarhakos.

A hallmark in his career — and an event of great importance for the musical scene of post-war Greece — was his cooperation with composer Vassilis Tsitsanis. Starting in 1956 it resulted in several new songs as well as reinterpretions of Tsitsanis older songs. Kazantzidis, thus, sung and popularized such rebetiko classics as "Synnefiasmeni Kyriaki", "Bakse tsifliki" and "Ta Kavourakia". These songs, and many others, previously unknown to the wide public suddenly became cherished and sought-after.

A few years later Kazantzidis started to develop his own musical style, a style with influences ranging from rebetika to Indian music. This new turn met with considerable success and became a template for later developments in Greek popular music. "Mantoubala" for example, a Kazantzidis original, was inspired by an Indian film he saw. This was the first record in Greece to sell over 100,000 copies, an amazing fact since the total population of the country (at the time) was about 6.5 million.

Stelios Kazantzidis married Marinella on 7 May 1964 and they toured together in Germany and the United States. The two of them became a legendary duo. In 1965, Kazantzidis, whilst at the peak of his career, decided to stop appearing in nightclubs. For the next ten years, he only released studio albums. In September 1966 he divorced Marinella, and they recorded their last duets ("Mh Mou Lete Gia Authn", "Apopse Se Eho Stin Agalia Mou" and "I Kardia Tis Manas") for Philips the following year.

Following Marinella's departure Litsa Diamandi became his primary female harmony vocalist in 1968. The album simply titled Stelios Kazantzidis (often referred to as the "balloon album", due to its cover artwork), was a transitional album. Marinella sang on some songs (including "Pame Tsarka"-an updated version of Tsitsanis' "Bakse Tsifliki") and Diamandi on others (e.g. the big hit "Efiye Efiye").

In 1968, Kazantzidis recorded "Nyhterides Ki Arahnes", written by newcomer Hristos Nikolopoulos; the song became an immediate success. The follow-up to this album, Ena Gramma had a number of hits, which included "Sto Trapezi Pou Tha Pino", "Pare T' Ahnaria", "Tha Kopso to Telefono" and "Kai Oi Andres Klene" (men cry too). Marinella had an "answer back" to that latter song, by releasing "Oi Andres Den Klene" (men don't cry).

In 1973 he collaborated with songwriter Akis Panou and released an album with six songs, including one of his biggest hits, "I zoi mou oli", and in 1974 he recorded "Stin Anatoli", composed by Theodorakis. The next year he recorded another one of his biggest hits, "Iparho", penned by Pythagoras. Suddenly Kazantzidis rocked the Greek music industry again, when he announced his decision to stop recording. He accused his label of "colonial-like" contracts and took a leave from recording. In 1987 he recorded again for the first time after 12 years. "Ο Dromos Tis Epistrofis" (Ο Δρόμος της Επιστροφής) sold 200,000 copies and became a commercial success. He continued to release records occasionally for the rest of his life. Kazantidis, besides his work on folk music, also recorded four records with Pontic music alongside Chrysanthos Theodoridis, the greatest Pontic singer, songwriter, and lyricist.[2]

In Israel, he was a musical icon. Many of his songs were translated into Hebrew and performed by the country's leading singers. Yaron Enosh, an Israel Radio broadcaster who often plays Greek music on his programs, described the singer's ability to combine joy with sorrow: "This is the task of music: to touch the entire range of feelings...Kazantzidis could do this; he played on all the strings." [3] To the Greek Jews who immigrated to Israel, Kazantzidis was "the voice of the world they left behind, for good or for bad." According to the operator of Radio Agapi, a station that plays Greek music 24 hours a day, "Kazantzidis was the voice of the people, of the weary, the exploited, the betrayed. And the voice of the refugee and the emigre, too." [4]

Kazantzidis died of a brain tumor on September 14, 2001.[7] His death was an emotional event for Greece, as attested to by the many obituaries in appreciation of his life and work.[8] Kazantzidis was given a national funeral through the streets of Elefsina (26 km from Athens) which was broadcast live on Greek television. His music was also beloved by the Greek diaspora all over the world, capturing their feelings in the difficult post-war period.

Greek popular music had long been intertwined with Greek post-war cinema. In the 50s and 60s, almost every film contained portions of music performed on screen, often by Kazantzidis.[9]

I kyria dimarhos (1960) - Mrs Mayor

Paixe, bouzouki mou glyko (1965) - Play, my sweet Bouzouki

I timoria (1965) - The punishment

Afiste me na ziso (1965) - Let me live

Adistaktoi (1965) - The Ruthless

Oi angeloi tis amartias (To limani) (1966) - Angels of sin

Foukarades kai leftades (1966) - The unfortunate and the rich

Eho dikaioma na s' agapo! (1966) - I have the right to love you

O gerontokoros (1967) - The aged bachelor

I ora tis dikaiosynis (1967) - The hour of justice

Adiki katara (1967) - Unjust Curse

Ta psihoula tou kosmou (1968) - The breadcrumbs of the world

Oi andres den lygizoun pote! (1968) - Men never bend

O gigas tis Kypselis (1968) - Kypseli's Giant

Kravges ston anemo (1976) - Shouts in the wind

Two of his songs ("To Psomi tis Ksenitias" and "Efige Efige") are featured in Season 2 of the hit HBO TV series The Wire, during the season's second-to-last episode, "Bad Dreams". The first is heard in the background of a restaurant while the second is heard in multiple of the final scenes of the episode; the music was not sourced anywhere on set, a technique rarely used by the show's producers.

"Exhana Adika Na Vro" is audible in the Movie "Summer Lovers" .However, does not appear on the soundtrack album, nor is it in the film credits.

"Chrysos Diskos Kazantzidi & Marinellas" / "Songs from the North American Tour" 1965 (Actually studio recordings of the songs they performed in the US/Canada. Taping of the Carnegie Hall show was planned but never occurred. Other tour stops were in Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, and Boston. No bootleg recordings of any of these concerts, are known to exist).

"Kazantzidis #3" (mid-1960s recordings on Odeon, not to be confused with another album, also called "#3" which is on Regal, and is a hits compilation)

Nina "Custom Series"(Nina, USA)....late 1950s Greek hits compilation of various artists, spread through six discs—the first four have no Kazantzidis songs, but he appears on the last two, with "Tha Vro Moumouri Baglama" and "Enoho Chryma"...

1.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens

2.
Rebetiko
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Rebetiko briefly can be described as the urban popular song of the Greeks, especially the poorest, from the late 19th century to the 1950s. The word rebetiko is a form derived from the Greek word rebetis. The word rebetis is today construed to mean a person who embodies aspects of character, dress, behavior, morals, the word is closely related, but not identical in meaning, to the word mangas, which means strong guy that needs correction. The earliest source of the word to date is to be found in a Greek-Latin dictionary published in Leyden, Holland in 1614 where the word ῥεμπιτός is defined as a wanderer, blind, misguided, etc. The melodies of most rebetiko songs are often considered to follow one or more dromoi (Greek for roads or routes. The names of the dromoi are derived in all but a few cases from the names of various Turkish modes, furthermore, rebetika has come to be played on instruments tuned in equal temperament, in direct conflict with the more complex pitch divisions of the makam system. During the later period of the rebetiko revival there has been a cultural entente between Greek and Turkish musicians, mostly of the younger generations. This portion of the repertoire was played almost exclusively on the instruments of Smyrneika/Ottoman café music, such as kanonaki, santouri, politikí lyra, tsimbalo. The scales used in music are the traditional western major and minor scales, such as a series of eastern makams. Some of them include rast, uşşâk, hijaz, saba, most rebetiko songs are based on traditional Greek or Anatolian dance rhythms. Most common are, Syrtos, a name for many Greek dances, Zeibekiko. There is one component within the tradition which is common to many musical styles within Eastern musical spheres. This is the freely improvised unmeasured prelude, within a given dromos/makam and this is known in Greek as taxim or taximi after the Arabic word usually transliterated as taqsim or taksim. The first rebetiko songs to be recorded, as mentioned above, were mostly in Ottoman/Smyrna style and it is a view of the studio of the Athens luthier Leonidas Gailas, whom the artist describes as Fabricatore di bossuchi. The drawing clearly shows a number of bouzouki-like instruments, despite this evidence, we still know nothing of the early history of instruments association with what came to be called rebetiko. This recording, reissued for the first time in 2013, reveals a folk melodic style never recorded before or since, the first recording to feature the instrument clearly in a recognisable somewhat more modern melodic role, was made in 1929, in New York. Three years later the first true bouzouki solo was recorded by Ioannis Halikias, also in New York, in Greece the bouzouki had been allowed into a studio for the very first time a few months previously, in October 1931. The amateur bouzouki player Konstandinos Kalamaras accompanied a professional Byzantine singer, Konstandinos Vorgias, and these recordings marked the real beginning of the bouzoukis recorded career in Greece, a career which continues unbroken to the present day

3.
Greek alphabet
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It is the ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts. In its classical and modern forms, the alphabet has 24 letters, Modern and Ancient Greek use different diacritics. In standard Modern Greek spelling, orthography has been simplified to the monotonic system, examples In both Ancient and Modern Greek, the letters of the Greek alphabet have fairly stable and consistent symbol-to-sound mappings, making pronunciation of words largely predictable. Ancient Greek spelling was generally near-phonemic, among consonant letters, all letters that denoted voiced plosive consonants and aspirated plosives in Ancient Greek stand for corresponding fricative sounds in Modern Greek. This leads to groups of vowel letters denoting identical sounds today. Modern Greek orthography remains true to the spellings in most of these cases. The following vowel letters and digraphs are involved in the mergers, Modern Greek speakers typically use the same, modern, in other countries, students of Ancient Greek may use a variety of conventional approximations of the historical sound system in pronouncing Ancient Greek. Several letter combinations have special conventional sound values different from those of their single components, among them are several digraphs of vowel letters that formerly represented diphthongs but are now monophthongized. In addition to the three mentioned above, there is also ⟨ου⟩, pronounced /u/, the Ancient Greek diphthongs ⟨αυ⟩, ⟨ευ⟩ and ⟨ηυ⟩ are pronounced, and respectively in voicing environments in Modern Greek. The Modern Greek consonant combinations ⟨μπ⟩ and ⟨ντ⟩ stand for and respectively, ⟨τζ⟩ stands for, in addition, both in Ancient and Modern Greek, the letter ⟨γ⟩, before another velar consonant, stands for the velar nasal, thus ⟨γγ⟩ and ⟨γκ⟩ are pronounced like English ⟨ng⟩. There are also the combinations ⟨γχ⟩ and ⟨γξ⟩ and these signs were originally designed to mark different forms of the phonological pitch accent in Ancient Greek. The letter rho, although not a vowel, also carries a rough breathing in word-initial position, if a rho was geminated within a word, the first ρ always had the smooth breathing and the second the rough breathing leading to the transiliteration rrh. The vowel letters ⟨α, η, ω⟩ carry an additional diacritic in certain words, the iota subscript. This iota represents the former offglide of what were originally long diphthongs, ⟨ᾱι, ηι, ωι⟩, another diacritic used in Greek is the diaeresis, indicating a hiatus. In 1982, a new, simplified orthography, known as monotonic, was adopted for use in Modern Greek by the Greek state. Although it is not a diacritic, the comma has a function as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό. There are many different methods of rendering Greek text or Greek names in the Latin script, the form in which classical Greek names are conventionally rendered in English goes back to the way Greek loanwords were incorporated into Latin in antiquity. In this system, ⟨κ⟩ is replaced with ⟨c⟩, the diphthongs ⟨αι⟩ and ⟨οι⟩ are rendered as ⟨ae⟩ and ⟨oe⟩ respectively, and ⟨ει⟩ and ⟨ου⟩ are simplified to ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ respectively

4.
Greeks
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The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Turkey, Sicily, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world, many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of ancient Greek colonization. The cultural centers of the Greeks have included Athens, Thessalonica, Alexandria, Smyrna, most ethnic Greeks live nowadays within the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. The Greek genocide and population exchange between Greece and Turkey nearly ended the three millennia-old Greek presence in Asia Minor, other longstanding Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and southern Russia and Ukraine and in the Greek diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Greeks speak the Greek language, which forms its own unique branch within the Indo-European family of languages, the Hellenic. They are part of a group of ethnicities, described by Anthony D. Smith as an archetypal diaspora people. Both migrations occur at incisive periods, the Mycenaean at the transition to the Late Bronze Age, the Mycenaeans quickly penetrated the Aegean Sea and, by the 15th century BC, had reached Rhodes, Crete, Cyprus and the shores of Asia Minor. Around 1200 BC, the Dorians, another Greek-speaking people, followed from Epirus, the Dorian invasion was followed by a poorly attested period of migrations, appropriately called the Greek Dark Ages, but by 800 BC the landscape of Archaic and Classical Greece was discernible. The Greeks of classical antiquity idealized their Mycenaean ancestors and the Mycenaean period as an era of heroes, closeness of the gods. The Homeric Epics were especially and generally accepted as part of the Greek past, as part of the Mycenaean heritage that survived, the names of the gods and goddesses of Mycenaean Greece became major figures of the Olympian Pantheon of later antiquity. The ethnogenesis of the Greek nation is linked to the development of Pan-Hellenism in the 8th century BC, the works of Homer and Hesiod were written in the 8th century BC, becoming the basis of the national religion, ethos, history and mythology. The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi was established in this period, the classical period of Greek civilization covers a time spanning from the early 5th century BC to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC. It is so named because it set the standards by which Greek civilization would be judged in later eras, the Peloponnesian War, the large scale civil war between the two most powerful Greek city-states Athens and Sparta and their allies, left both greatly weakened. Many Greeks settled in Hellenistic cities like Alexandria, Antioch and Seleucia, two thousand years later, there are still communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, like the Kalash, who claim to be descended from Greek settlers. The Hellenistic civilization was the period of Greek civilization, the beginnings of which are usually placed at Alexanders death. This Hellenistic age, so called because it saw the partial Hellenization of many non-Greek cultures and this age saw the Greeks move towards larger cities and a reduction in the importance of the city-state. These larger cities were parts of the still larger Kingdoms of the Diadochi, Greeks, however, remained aware of their past, chiefly through the study of the works of Homer and the classical authors. An important factor in maintaining Greek identity was contact with barbarian peoples and this led to a strong desire among Greeks to organize the transmission of the Hellenic paideia to the next generation

5.
Ordu
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Ordu is a port city on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, historically also known as Cotyora, and the capital of Ordu Province with a population of 205,396 in the city center. The city is worlds largest hazelnut producer, while, hazelnut is the main source of economy, the city has small-sized industries and rapidly growing tourism in the recent years. In the 8th century BC, the settlement of Cotyora was founded in area as one of a string of colonies along the Black Sea coast established by the Miletians. Xenophon mentions the town, as does Strabo much later, arrian, in his 131 CE guidebook Periplus of the Euxine Sea, describes it as a village and not a large one. The area came under the control of the Danishmends, then the Seljuk Turks in 1214 and 1228, afterwards, it passed to the dominion of the Ottomans in 1461 along with the Empire of Trabzon. The modern city was founded by the Ottomans as Bayramlı near Eskipazar as a military outpost 5 km west of Ordu, in 1869, the name was changed to Ordu and united with the districts of Bolaman, Perşembe, Ulubey, Hansamana and Aybastı. The Boztepe aerial tramway is another attraction which is set to become a modern symbol for the city. Local music is typical of the Black Sea region, including the kemençe, the cuisine is primarily based on local vegetables and includes both typical Turkish dishes — such as pide and kebab — and more interesting fare such as plain or caramel burnt ice-cream. As of 1920, Ordu was one of the few producers of white green beans, Ordu also had mulberry tree plantations for sericulture. The city is worlds largest hazelnut producer and home to Turkeys 50% of hazelnut production, paşaoğlu Konağı and Ethnographic museum - a ethnographic museum. Taşbaşı Cultural Centre - a cultural centre Boztepe - a hill of 550 m overlooking the town from the west, since June 2012, an aerial lift system provides an easy way of transportation between the citys coastline and the hilltop. The Ordu Boztepe Gondola can transport hourly 900 passengers up to the hilltop in 6.5 minutes and its base is the 19 Eylül Stadium in the heart of the city. Orduspor football team has played in the Super League of Turkey several seasons, the club also has a basketball team. Ordu has a high and evenly distributed throughout the year. Precipitation is heaviest in autumn and spring, snowfall is quite common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two, and it can be heavy once it snows. The water temperature, like in the rest of the Black Sea coast of Turkey, is always cool, ertuğrul Günay - politician who is a former Minister for Culture and Tourism

6.
Alanya
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As of Turkeys 2010 Census, the city had a population of 98,627, while the district that includes the city and its built-up region had an area of 1,598.51 km2 and 248,286 inhabitants. Alanyas greatest political importance came in the Middle Ages, with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm under the rule of Alaeddin Kayqubad I and his building campaign resulted in many of the citys landmarks, such as the Kızıl Kule, Tersane, and Alanya Castle. Tourism has risen since 1958 to become the dominant industry in the city, warm-weather sporting events and cultural festivals take place annually in Alanya. In 2014 Mayor Adem Murat Yücel, of the Nationalist Movement Party unseated Hasan Sipahioğlu, of the Justice and Development Party, the city has changed hands many times over the centuries, and its name has reflected this. Alanya was known in Latin as Coracesium or in Greek as Korakesion from the Luwian Korakassa meaning point/protruding city, the Roman Catholic Church still recognizes the Latin name as a titular see in its hierarchy. Under the Byzantine Empire it become known as Kalonoros or Kalon Oros, the Seljuks renamed the city Alaiye, a derivative of the Sultan Alaeddin Kayqubad Is name. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Italian traders called the city Candelore or Cardelloro, in his 1935 visit, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk finalized the name in the new alphabet as Alanya, changing the i and e in Alaiye, reportedly because of a misspelled telegram in 1933. A Phoenician language tablet found in the dates to 625 BC, and the city is specifically mentioned in the 4th-century BC Greek geography manuscript. The castle rock was likely inhabited under the Hittites and the Achaemenid Empire, Alexanders successors left the area to one of the competing Macedonian generals, Ptolemy I Soter, after Alexanders death in 323 BC. His dynasty maintained control over the mainly Isaurian population. The city resisted Antiochus III the Great of the neighboring Seleucid kingdom in 199 BC and his rival Antiochus VII Sidetes completed work in 137 BC on a new castle and port, begun under Diodotus. The period of piracy in Alanya finally ended after the incorporation into the Pamphylia province by Pompey in 67 BC. Isaurian banditry remained an issue under the Romans, and the tribes revolted in the fourth and fifth centuries AD, with the spread of Christianity Coracesium, as it was called, became a bishopric. Coracesium was a suffragan of the see of Side, the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Prima. It continued to be mentioned in the Notitiae Episcopatuum as late as the 12th or 13th century, no longer a residential bishopric, Coracesium is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see. Islam arrived in the 7th century with Arab raids, which led to the construction of new fortifications, the area fell from Byzantine control after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 to tribes of Seljuk Turks, only to be returned in 1120 by John II Komnenos. Seljuk rule saw the age of the city, and it can be considered the winter capital of their empire. Alaeddin Kayqubad I also constructed numerous gardens and pavilions outside the walls and these were likely financed by his own treasury and by the local emirs, and constructed by the contractor Abu Ali al-Kattani al-Halabi

7.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age

8.
Greek Resistance
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The rise of resistance movements in Greece was precipitated by the invasion and occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany from 1941–44. Italy led the way with its invasion from Albania in 1940. Despite that some in the left-wing resistance claimed the government to be illegitimate, the Germans set up a Greek collaborationist government, headed by General Georgios Tsolakoglou, before entering Athens. Some high-profile officers of the pre-war Greek regime served the Germans in various posts, the first wider resistance movements occurred in northern Greece, where the Bulgarians annexed Greek territories. The first mass uprising occurred around the town of Drama in eastern Macedonia, the Bulgarian authorities had initiated large-scale Bulgarization policies, causing the Greek populations reaction. During the night of 28–29 September 1941 the people of Drama and this badly-organized revolt was suppressed by the Bulgarian Army, which retaliated executing over three thousand people in Drama alone. An estimated fifteen thousand Greeks were killed by the Bulgarian occupational army during the few weeks. The town of Doxato and the village of Choristi are officially considered today Martyr Cities, however, these harsh actions, together with the plundering of Greeces natural resources by the Germans, turned Greeks more against the occupiers. The lack of a government and the inactivity of the established political class created a power vacuum. Most officers and citizens who wanted to continue the fight fled to the British-controlled Middle East, and this situation resulted in the creation of several new groupings, where the pre-war establishment was largely absent, which assumed the role of resisting the occupation powers. The first major group to be founded was the National Liberation Front. By 1944 EAM became a movement with more than 1,800,000 members, EAM was organized by the Communist Party of Greece and other smaller parties, but all major political parties refused to participate either in EAM or in any other resistance movement. On February 16,1942, EAM gave permission to a communist veteran, although its foundation was announced in late 1941, there were no military acts until 1942, when the Greek Peoples Liberation Army, the armed forces of EAM, was born. Greece is a country, with a long tradition in andartiko, dating back to the days of the klephts of the Ottoman period. In the 1940s, the countryside was poor, the network not very well developed. National and Social Liberation also formed a corps, named after the famous 5/42 Evzone Regiment, under Col. Dimitrios Psarros. Until the summer of 1942, the authorities had been little troubled by the armed Resistance. The Italians in particular, in control of most of the countryside, from that point, however, the Resistance gained pace, with EAM/ELAS in particular expanding rapidly

9.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership

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Mikis Theodorakis
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Michael Mikis Theodorakis is a Greek songwriter and composer who has written over 1000 songs. He scored for the films Zorba the Greek, Z, and he composed the Mauthausen Trilogy also known as The Ballad of Mauthausen, which has been described as the most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust and possibly his best work. He is viewed as Greeces best-known living composer and he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. Politically, he is associated with the left because of his ties to the Communist Party of Greece. He was an MP for the KKE from 1981 to 1990 and he continues to speak out in favor of left-liberal causes, Greek–Turkish–Cypriot relations, and against the War in Iraq. He has consistently opposed oppressive regimes and was a key voice against the 1967–1974 Greek junta, Mikis Theodorakis was born on the Greek island of Chios and spent his childhood years in different provincial Greek cities such as Mytilene, Cephallonia, Patras, Pyrgos, and Tripoli. His father, a lawyer and a servant, was from the small village of Kato Galatas on Crete and his mother, Aspasia Poulakis, was from an ethnically Greek family in Çeşme. He was raised with Greek folk music and was influenced by Byzantine liturgy, theodorakiss fascination with music began in early childhood, he taught himself to write his first songs without access to musical instruments. In Patras and Pyrgos he took his first music lessons, and in Tripoli, Peloponnese, he gave his first concert at the age of seventeen. He went to Athens in 1943, and became a member of a Reserve Unit of ELAS, and led a troop in the fight against the British and the Greek right in the Dekemvriana. During the Greek Civil War he was arrested, sent into exile on the island of Icaria and then deported to the island of Makronisos, where he was tortured and twice buried alive. During the periods when he was not obliged to hide, not exiled or jailed, in 1950, he finished his studies and took his last two exams with flying colours. He went to Crete, where he became the head of the Chania Music School, at this time he ended what he has called the first period of his musical writing. In 1954 he travelled with his young wife Myrto Altinoglou to Paris where he entered the Conservatory and studied musical analysis under Olivier Messiaen and his time in Paris, 1954–1959, was his second period of musical writing. His symphonic works, a Piano concerto, his first suite, his first symphony, in 1957, he won the Gold Medal in the Moscow Music Festival, President of the Jury was Dmitri Shostakovitch. Chairman of the International Theodorakis Foundation FILIKI, list of works based on the research of Asteris Koutoulas, published in O Mousikos Theodorakis. Κύκλος τραγουδιών για πιάνο και φωνή Χαιρετισμοί,4 Maria Farantouri — Asmata Mikis Theodorakis — Symphony No. A - Γ Να μαγευτώ και να μεθύσω Μάνου Χατζιδάκι εγκώμιον I had Three Lives Σπίθα, Music and Social Change, Foreword by Mikis Theodorakis

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Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam